Abp. Vatche Servant of God

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Armodoxy for Today

Archbishop Vatché, servant of God.

“You did not choose me” said Jesus, “But I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.” (John 15:16) In his farewell discourse with the disciples, our Lord Jesus addresses them with these words.

In the Gospel of Matthew, we see Jesus beginning his public ministry at the Sea of Galilee where, “He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”

A few men have accepted the calling and have executed their duties such that they have realized the fruit of the harvest promised to them. One such man was Archbishop Vatché Hovsepian, who fished and caught men for the Kingdom. I am one of those who was fortunate enough to be caught in his net. Archbishop Vatché was my spiritual father, the one who ordained me into the sacred priesthood 40 years ago. Today, he passed on to be with the Lord.

Archbishop Vatché was the senior most clergyman in the entire Armenian Church. He was ordained into the priesthood in 1951 at the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia in Lebanon. He studied in Edenborough, Scotland, and was invited to the United States to serve as a pastor of a flock in New Jersey. His personal calling took him Canada and then to the Western Diocese where he served as our primate from 1971 to 2013. During his tenure the Diocese grew from a small office to a complex. His accomplishments were many and he gave, as our Lord says, “Fruit that will last.”

We often hear about the Armenian Genocide and stand in awe of the generation that underwent and endured the atrocities. We often forget the generation that followed, the ones that picked up the broken remnants, and raised the church, like the phoenix from the ashes. This was the generation that was charged with rebuilding the church. This was the generation that, like God, had nothing and created something. Today, what we have as the Armenian Church, is thanks to this generation which put it all on the line to ensure that future generations would have a home where they could learn and live their Christian Armenian identity. Archbishop Vatché was from that next generation, and endowed with a gift of attracting people with his charismatic personality which was unsettling, uncompromising and demanded the best from all of us. He commanded the room he entered. He left a large imprint on many of our lives.

Please join me on my weekly podcast The Next Step as we spend some time with personal reflections of the life and legacy of Archbishop Vatché.

Today, we pray the requiem prayer of the Armenian Church, “O Christ, Son of God, forbearing and compassionate, have compassion, in your love as our Creator, upon the souls of your servants who are at rest, especially upon the soul your newly departed servant, official of the church and my spiritual father, Archbishop Vatché Hovsepian, for whom we offer this prayers. Be mindful of him on the great day of the coming of your kingdom. Make him worthy of mercy, of expiation and forgiveness of sins. Glorify him and reckon him with the company of your saints at your right hand. For you are Lord and creator of all, judge of the living and of the dead. And to you is befitting glory, dominion and honor, now and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Change Searched

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Next Step #758: As Google announces its search results, and change followed fear from 2021 to 2022. Christ and his relevance 2000 years ago and today: a lesson for the Church today.
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The Jesus Gift

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Armodoxy for Today

The Jesus Gift

You’re at the Great Banquet (Luke 14). It’s a celebration. It’s a table set in the Kingdom. And now you realize that a banquet such as this must have a purpose. It does. It’s to celebrate the Kingdom of God. And the guest of honor is Jesus Christ.

Imagine being invited to a celebration for the Lord. Actually, you don’t need to imagine anything, the celebration of the Lord’s birth, or nativity, takes place at Christmas, and as we will eventually understand, it’s not limited to the day of Christmas. It is customary, courteous and in good taste to share a gift with the honoree. What gift could you possibly give Jesus? Trust me, there is nothing on Amazon, in a catalog, or anywhere that falls into the Jesus-gift category. Fortunately, Jesus has given us his wish list for to celebrate his birthday. It appears as a preface to the Great Banquet parable.

Jesus says, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

There it is. It’s the Jesus-gift. Once you realize you’re at the Table of the Lord, life and immortality are given as gifts to you. Life and life eternal, is a gift for which you have absolutely no way of putting a price tag on it. It is indeed priceless and impossible to payback, unless you do exactly what Jesus asks us to do, that is, to give a gift to those who have no way of paying you back. Did you catch the specific list of people mentioned by Jesus? He said, to offer an invitation to the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind. This is the same group which is identified as outcasts by the Parable of the Banquet.

Jesus could not spell it out any clearer, the greatest gift we can give Jesus for the celebration of his birth, is the gift he requests: do good to others, do to those who have no way to pay you back or return the favor.

This goes against everything we’re accustomed to do during the Christmas season, but this is the true gift of Christmas. In this gift we understand that the measure of love for God is based on our ability to love and care for one another. Christmas giving begins with the acknowledgement of Jesus’ Birth as a gift to us, and to share the joy by bringing goodness to others, especially the ones who have no way of returning the favor. The orgins of Christian gift giving stems from this simple understanding that the only way to acknowledge and thank God for the awesome gift of life is to share ourselves with other.

Christmas is now in our sights. Purpose and meaning are now coming into play as we move on with our Advent Journey.

We therefore pray, Lord, we thank you for the gift of life. We prepare ourselves for Christmas by opening our hearts to one another. Help me to share my love with others with no other expectation than the satisfaction of fulfilling Your Will. May I give to others, in the same spirit with which You have given to us and may my gratitude be expressed in the offerings I give to those in need. Amen.

Banquet Seating

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Armodoxy for Today

Banquet Seating

The Parable of the Great Banquet (Luke 14:12-24) ends with the words, “For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.” And now, you find yourself sitting at the table, and the only reason you are here is because you’ve accepted the invitation. You’re at the Banquet which was referenced as “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” You’re blessed. You’re at the feast. And now let’s take a look around.

Up until now we’ve looked at others who have refused the invitation. The Armodoxy challenge is to put yourself in the Parable. It’s easy to look at the characters in a parable and see the fault of others, but the Christian is called to see him or herself in the parable dynamics. This placement is an exercise in self-evaluation. Hence, we find one of the important reasons for the season of Advent: to be prepared emotionally and spiritually to accept the Creator of the Universe in our midst. Christ is born and revealed, is the Christmas message.

You’re now at the Table. Take it further by asking yourself, in what ways have I answered the invitation to be seated? The true invitation is to the Kingdom of Heaven. God asks us – invites us – to value life, we value our cars, our homes, our business, to the point we put our children on hold while we go chasing material wealth. God asks us – invites us – to seek peace. We build bigger and better weapons. We eliminate options of working together to find harmony and find only ways of building borders and barriers. God asks us – invites us – to love one another and care for others. We say not everyone. We set our standards so that love is not unconditional.

In other words, the invite to the Banquet is an invite to the Kingdom of God. Responding to the invite is a chance for each of us to truly listen carefully to the answers of our heart.

The Parable is to share God’s love and God’s kingdom with everyone. Everyone has equal access. Today we sit at the Table and look around, thankful that we are here and increase our awareness of the love, tolerance, peace-seeking, life-loving, that has brought us here. God’s grace and mercy have given us access to this beautiful opportunity, tomorrow we’ll look at the price for sitting at this Table. It steep but its also a lot of fun.

Join me in prayer, All benevolent and almighty refuge and hope of the weak and the troubled, my Lord and my God, who created everything from nothingness. Draw closer to me with Your unspeakable mercy, for you show compassion to those who yearn for You and heal them through Your benevolence. Make me worthy of the Table of Immortality, to join in prayer those who adore You, for to You is befitting glory, dominion and honor, now and always, Amen.

Hor Deocves

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Elitism

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Armodoxy for Today

Elitism

The Great Banquet Parable (Luke 14:12-24) is the topic of this week’s Advent Journey. Jesus presents a scenario where a man invites friends and relatives to participate in a huge banquet he has organized. One-by-one the invitees come up with excuses. In response, the organizer of the dinner party goes ahead and extends to the invitation to the those who are considered “outcasts” – to the poor, the lame, the maimed and the blind. And still yet, he invites everyone from the four corners of his town to participate in the banquet.

In the time of Jesus, and still today, there was a general feeling that there are people that are “chosen” by God. This parable is a simple way of expressing a reality at the time, that Jesus, the Banquet, had come and people who were invited, that is the “chosen ones” found excuses to stay away. Instead, the banquet – the goodness the “the prize” which was assumed to be limited to a small group was accessible to everyone. The invitation was to all.

Often in religious circles, ego dominates our understanding of salvation to the point that we forget that life and the consequences of life – eternal life – are gifts from God. In the time of Jesus there were people who were certain that God and His Kingdom were accessible only to them. It’s a type of elitism that Jesus spoke against, and in fact, his outright expression might have even been the reason for his execution. This elitism could be delineated on along ethnic lines, socio-economic grounds, or even around beliefs. In other words, there are those who feel that unless you belong to a particular tribe, ethnic group, class, understanding, or even religion, you cannot access the fullness of God.

One of the tenants of Armodoxy is that we understand that God is God and we are people, that is, He is the Creator and we are the creation. If God is Father of all then we are brothers and sisters with everyone. In matters of life, whether here in earth or in heaven, the final word belongs to the Author of Life, God. For this reason, we shy away from proclamations such as “I am saved.” Salvation is the decision of God and Christ is very clear about us following, rather than setting standards and degrees of justification. To the Parable, Christ tells us those who think they are invited to the banquet, in the end, are left out with their places being taken by people they never would have assumed would be let in.

In the sight of God, there is no ethnicity, boundaries, or borders, rather we are all his children. For this reason, Francois de Salignac de La Mothe-Fenelon once said, “All wars are civil wars because all men are brothers…”

The Great Banquet Parable teaches us that all are invited to be part of God’s banquet and each of us can accept or reject the invite. It’s based on that acceptance or rejection that the banquet is filled. Tomorrow, we’ll look deeper into acceptance and rejection of the invite. I look forward to having you join us on this Advent Journey through Armodoxy.

Invite to the Banquet

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Armodoxy for Today
Invite to the Banquet

This week of Advent is dedicated to a parable offered by our Lord and recorded by St. Luke (chapter 14:12-24).

Suppose you wanted to celebrate your daughter’s birthday with a party on 20th of the month. You send out invites to your relatives, friends and even neighbors. “Help us celebrate our daughter’s birthday” says the invite. “On the 20th at 5PM, in our backyard, join us for a bar-b-que,” finishes off the invite. You send them off and start receiving responses: the first one says, “I’m sorry, I can’t make it on the 20th can you change the date to the 19th?” Another says, “I don’t like bar-b-que, too bad you’re not serving baked foods. I won’t be coming.” The next one complains that the outdoors, your backyard, is too cold. “I wish you had the event in a hall. I won’t be attending.”

Such a scenario would be humorous at the least, and downright rude on the courtesy scale. Jesus shares the following parable with us. His intention was not to be humorous, nor to get a rise out of us. Instead, he speaks of the lessons that is part of our Advent Journey on the road to Christmas through Armodoxy.

Jesus said, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’”

This story, the Parable of the Great Banquet, has many dimensions to it. It speaks of the invitation to Christianity and Christian living in particular and talks about the call to humanity, to living in harmony with and within our world, in general. It points to the essence and the purpose of Christmas. For this reason the Armenian Church has prescribed this parable as the theme of this week in Advent.

We have heard the parable. We dive into to tomorrow, as we continue our Advent Journey. I look forward to having you join us.

Let us pray, Heavenly Father, you have invited me to our Kingdom. From the day of my baptism from the holy font until today, I have tried to follow your ways. Sometimes I wonder off the path, and I find excuses to justify my missteps. Today, I put those excuses to one side and I look to you to keep my feet on the path you have opened for me. Amen.

Into Place

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Next Step #757 – December 8, 2022 – Things falling into place during this Advent Season, on a stream to Peace. Included: Vahagn Setian Grove dedication, the Theodicy and Advent, Cathia Hamparian Children’s Memorial Service, Personal loss as a prelude to ministry, John Lennon 42 years, Armenian Earthquake 34 years, Russian Priest talks about peace: Putin vs. the sermon.
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Vahagn Setian Foundation
Cathia Hamparian Children’s Memorial 
Putin vs. the Priest 
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John Lennon Happy Xmas (War is Over) 
Cover: Armenia Elevator 2019 Fr. Vazk01
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Applied Theodicy

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Armodoxy for Today

Applied Theodicy

We have dedicated this week of Advent to exploring theodicies, that is, what does it mean to believe in a good and just God, especially in the face of evil. We were prompted by the lesson of the week from Luke 13.

Today, we apply theodicy and decipher a practical theodicy. Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” We begin to understand ourselves as part of a process, part of God’s royal family, and in so doing we begin to understand that the kingdom is not about prestige and honor but about accepting a responsibility of being human and created in the image of God. In other word, solutions that are found outside of us, reduce or nullify a very important component of our humanity, namely the ability to interact and share in the love is God. We pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is more than a wish, it is the understanding that we are the inhabitants of earth and therefore, if His will is to be done, it is with our participation.

The world around us is filled with the much pain, and suffering is everywhere. The evil we experience in life has many causes, some brought about by people, others by life circumstances. The Christian is called to be Christlike. Jesus came across people who were suffering from illness as well as those in deep pain over losses brought about by tragedies in life. He reached out, comforted, healed and restored. We would like to do the same, of course, but are not confident of our ability to do so because we are overwhelmed with the magnitude of evil in our lives.

Reach out. Comfort. Heal. Restore.

Applied theodicy is about applying what we have learned as an answer to evil. Before Jesus healed and restored, he reached out and comforted. Reaching out is the first step a Christian is called to do, and each of us is capable to doing so.

During the Advent Season, we have a very special evening dedicated to the remembrance of one of the greatest evils, namely the death of children. On the second Sunday in December, we gather and remember those who have passed before their time to live. “Children’s Memorial Day” is an opportunity to come together, offer ourselves, and bring semblance in a time of disaster. For a parent that has lost a child, whether to illness or to accident, comforting them may seem impossible, so then begin with the first step, reach out. It is simple action that mimics the actions of our Lord. He reached out. Comfort will follow and begin to understand how God uses people, in this case you, to bring about healing and restoration. You begin to understand that indeed the Kingdom of God is within you, and as a member of that Kingdom you are honored with responsibility.

Jesus says, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

We are only half-way through Advent, and already the pieces are coming together. Each day builds on the lessons of the previous day. To be Christlike is to accept responsibility to overcome the hardships, the evil, of this world.

We pray, the words taught to us by Christ, “Our Father who is in heaven, lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory. Amen.”

We continue our Advent Journey next time and I look forward to doing so with you.

Earthquake Theodicy

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Armodoxy for Today
Earthquake Theodicy

On this date the earth shook in the town of Spitak, Armenia. The year was 1988, the Soviet Union was still intact. It’s president, Michael Gorbachev was visiting the United States, engaging in high level talks with then President Ronald Reagan promoting Glasnost and Perestroika. He cut his trip short and returned home and to Armenia to assess the damages. Anywhere from 25,000 – 50,000 people were presumed dead and thousand more injured.

At the time I was serving at the Armenian Church in Cupertino, California. We immediately went into disaster aid mode and became the collection center for humanitarian aid in the Bay Area, shipping much needed medical supplies and survival goods and services on a weekly basis.

The season was Advent. Christmas was approaching, but everyone was so overwhelmed by the enormity of the disaster that normal celebrations and gift giving was severely curtailed. Yet, on January 6, we would be celebrating Christmas – the joy of the Christ Child coming into the world – and greeting one another, “Christ is revealed among us!”

I was approached by the San Jose Mercury News to write a piece focusing on my sermon for Christmas: “God is Revealed, but where was He when we needed Him?” Here then, is what I offered and was printed January 5, 1989:

One of the most difficult questions asked of a priest is the question of evil. The problem is this: If God is good, and God is all powerful, why is there evil in the world? Since evil is a reality in this world, then it follows that either God is not all-powerful, or God does not will the good, or God does not exist. The search for an answer is more troubling when evil occurs in the form of a natural disaster, such as the Armenian earthquake. It seems that there is no one to blame but God.

This year, on January 6th the Armenian Church will celebrate Theophany (sometimes called Armenian Christmas). More than Christmas, we celebrate the Revelation of God to the world through His Son, Jesus Christ. Theophany is one of the major feast days of the Church. Far from a feast, this year will be different for Armenians. Still fresh in our minds is the tragedy of December 7, 1988 when we lost over 50,000 people to a natural disaster. Although this number is great by any standard, it is particularly significant for a small group of people such as the Armenians because it represents about 1% of the total world population of Armenians and approximately 2% of the population in Armenia. In comparison, if an earthquake in the United States killed 2% of the population, we would lose five million people! One third of Armenia was leveled. Imagine one third of the United States leveled – from the Rocky Mountains to the Western coast!

When facing such devastation, it is only natural to ask why? Even more, why did not God spare the good Armenian people?  Why did He not intervene? Why the Armenian people? The same ones who were the first to accept Christianity, the ones who have so piously observed the faith for centuries, the ones who defended the faith to death, why them? When the history of a people, such as the Armenian’s, is plagued by devastation and tragedy, the questioning goes deeper: Why believe in a God who cannot save us from these dangers? I am confronted with questions such as these almost daily.

I also hear some answers. Some feel God has abandoned the Armenians for some divine purpose and plan. Even some doomsday forecasters claim the earthquake was part of the “signs of the times.” It is interesting to note, how quickly we are willing to thrust aside reason and logic when hit by calamity.

For me, I do not shy away from the scientific and logical approach. Why did the earthquake happen? Because the earth shifts. Why did people die? Because people were trapped under the rubble of buildings which were constructed poorly. Why didn’t God step in and save the Armenian people? I don’t know, but I venture to say that things just don’t work that way.

In times of crisis, our mental image of God transforms Him into a kind of superman. After all, He is omnipotent.  But the order of nature is such that that there is an imperfection built into this world. Lightning causes fires. Drought causes crops to wither and brings famine. The shifting and settling of the earth causes earthquakes. And sometimes, unfortunately, people die.

So, the more important question becomes, why believe in a god that cannot save you from the perils and dangers of this world? Why celebrate the revelation and birth of a god who is powerless against nature? We begin by answering that God is not some kind of superman. God is not there to prevent an earthquake. Disasters will happen, but God is found in the reaction to the disaster. Where was God when the earthquake happened? Most probably He was weeping and hurt like all of us. But the real power of God is seen in the aftermath. We see God in the reaction to the earthquake–in the love and support He provides us.

When we see people throughout the world coming together to aid the Armenians, it is God working. God gives us the capacity to love. We give to others because of that ability to love. We must stop thinking of God as this great puppeteer who sends disaster to this world to see our reaction. No!  Disaster, pain and suffering are part of an imperfect world. Where we do find God is in the peace and love that only He can give in answer to that disaster.

The feast of Theophany is the celebration of God becoming man so that man can know God. He took our form and went through all the motions of man. He suffered and died. He did not exempt Himself from this great suffering, for no one is exempt. However, He conquered death and promised the same to those who believe. What He left was His own peace, “not as the world gives.”

When the earthquake hit, we were all hurt. Where was God? We saw Him in the love and support from the four corners of the earth. We saw a world come together. We saw “enemies” helping “enemies.”

God is revealed: a God who understands us; a God who suffers with us; a God who helps and gives us strength during our darkest hour. This is God being revealed. This is the celebration of Theophany.